Who Invited Robert?
Robert’s Rules of Order were designed to make large organizations of members with disparate interests and customs functional. No surprise that they have been rejected by many left groups since the 1960s, who have been less interested in functionality than comradery.
In American politics, many people hate Robert’s Rules of Order. Robert’s Rules have been dragged as everything from “inefficient” to promoting “systemic racism,” and are even blamed for the dysfunction of the US Government. Nevertheless, there is something quintessentially American about Robert’s Rules of Order. They were created by an American army officer, in a uniquely American place, at a pivotal time in American history. Their meteoric rise in use and eventual fall from grace in leftist politics tells an illuminating story about American organizational life.
